Mining Institute, Kola Science Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Apatity, Russia:

A. S. Opalev, Deputy Director of Science, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, opalevas@rambler.ru

The paper addresses improvement of quality of iron ore concentrates produced from ferruginous quartzites to the level of Fetotal content of at least 70% suitable for direct reduction of iron. The article analyzes the main causes for the low quality of iron ore in the mining industry, which hinder the widespread introduction of nonblast furnace metallurgy processes. Two ways of solving this problem are considered: traditional superfine grinding in vertical mills for deep beneficiation of magnetite ores with magnetic separation, ultrafine screening and reverse flotation in column machines and dewatering with ceramic filters; innovative approach based on the rational use of grinding energy in ore preparation processes by implementing the principle of stage-wise output of the final concentrate using fine screening and magnetic–gravity separation. The research results on the development of an innovative technology for processing ferruginous quartzites by magnetic–gravity separation to produce high-quality magnetite concentrates with a total mass fraction of iron of at least 70% are presented. The data on the main stages of commercial-scale magnetic–gravity separation on industrial separator MGS-2.0 equipped with modern automation system at ferruginous quartzites processing plants in the northwest of Russia are presented.

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